Jack Warner is celebrating the successful overthrow of Chaguanas Mayor Suruj Rambachan and he says Basdeo Panday is next.
The Chaguanas West MP was a leading force in engineering the removal of Rambachan and getting a young woman from Felicity elected as the borough's new mayor.
Natasha Navas will take the oath of office on Thursday morning, creating history as the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position in Chaguanas.
The first female mayor in the country was Rose Janeire in Arima. And the youngest person to head a local government body was Kamaluddin Mohammed, who was 24 when he assumed office in 1953.
Read the story: Chaguanas ousts Suruj
The ouster of Rambachan came when the council met to choose two aldermen. Rambachan's term had expired and when the matter came to a vote two UNC councillors who had previously supported Rambachan voted with the PNM, giving Rambachan's opposition a majority.
Rambachan served as mayor for six years, and many borough employees and his supporters expressed shock.
Commenting on the move Warner promised that “The next hurdle I am going after is Panday. Change is going to come in the UNC, whether it is above or below. Today, it has come from below.
“It is the beginning and it is going to develop for all those that resist change.”
There were immediate accusations of vote buying, with allegations that Warner paid $100,000 to bribe the councillors to ensure that they voted against Rambachan.
Panday told the Trinidad Guardian, “From reports I received, I heard a lot of buying and selling took place and that Mr Warner was very instrumental in that...I hope he is not using UNC money to effect the so-called change.
He added, "I don’t think this is change. This is pure spite, malice and vindictiveness and people will recognise it. Those who try to hoodwink the people, will pay a large price. They’ll have to answer to them.”
Warner denied the charge, noting that “They voted by secret ballot. I do not know who voted for who. I never paid money. That is foolishness.”
However the admitted that he wanted Rambachan removed from office and informed deputy mayor Orlando Nagessar of his plan.
“I told Nagessar to go to Panday and tell him what I was doing. I was not hiding anything, because if he did not agree they will suffer in the end.”
Nagessar has also been removed from office and will be replaced by Nalsingh Rambarran.
Former UNC MP Ganga Singh, who is now a member of the Congress of the (COP), was at the borough's office when the vote took place. He admitted that he helped topple Rambachan.
Singh is a member of a COP committee trying to unite his party and the UNC. He told reporters, “This development is a clear rejection of the UNC and it demonstrates the crumbling of the party...The writing is on the wall. Once you place one foot on the road towards a paradigm shift there is no turning back. The longest rope has an end”.
Panday also commented on Singh's presence.
"I understand Ganga Singh was present...with Warner and a Government Minister. It’s obvious that Singh, Warner and the PNM ganged up to remove the mayor. I don’t know if this was sanctioned by COP and I can’t say how it will affect moves for UNC/COP unity, but we’ll press on with the unity effort since people want this,” Panday told the Guardian.
COP leader Winston Dookeran told the paper he only heard about the matter after it happened and insisted that he had nothing to do with it.
Warner said the new mayor is a "people’s mayor" and one of the first things he expects her to do is meet with market vendors in Chaguanas.
1 comment:
Things are definitely heating up. It seems the lines are being clearly dug in the sand - lets hope this will be a short and decisive war so that efforts, energies, and organizing can go towards making Trinidad a safer, better, and more equitable place to live for the people who have to endure opposition disunity and government neglect/incompetence.
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